Title Sequence

Title Sequence 

In order to conform to the components of a film opening, our opening would have to include opening credits; the titles.  I have previously completed many blog posts on deconstructions of supernatural horror openings so I used this research as a starting point for our titles.  A particular film that I liked for their titles was Insidious.

 

As I wasn't sure what exact titles to put into the sequence I watched the Insidious opening again and took down all the vital credits they used to apply them to our opening.  

To add in a title on final cut I went onto the right side bar and selected the capital T to view the selection of titles. After going through all the examples I found a title which faded out slowly which reminded me of smoke.  This was very appropriate for the genre and our opening as we used candles to reflect the religious aspects of the film.  The smoke affect also created a mysterious and ominous atmosphere which I feel adds depth and interest to the credits.  

 After putting in the main production company name that we created, I then inserted the associated production companies.  The font I chose for the titles was optima as it had a slight gothic look about it because of the slimness and points of the letters.









To manipulate the text further I decided to change the colour of the text to make it more genre appropriate.  After using the colour wheel and trying different combinations I finally decided on black text with a hite glow because mixed together they made a light grey.  This colour fit in with the smoke effect and the dark atmosphere of the genre.

 This is a section of the timeline with the titles fitted above the footage.  It includes the production companies, members of the group with a main film role and the two actors we used.

In conclusion I feel that the title sequence is fitting with the genre of supernatural horror and our specific opening themes.  They look professional and interesting which are two qualities vital for the success of our opening.  One thing I would improve on is the timing of the titles in correlation with the changing of the shots to make it look effective and smooth.

Finding background music

My task was to find and manipulate background music to our film opening originally we found a child singing and when we put it to the footage that we had edited it did not fit very well. Another idea that we had was to find s child singing hymns as it would be appropriate for the genre and work well as we have a priest in our film opening. But we could not find any legal free background sounds like this so I then looked for background music that was eerie and would work well with the visuals that we had. 


I found a website which provided this. I then downloaded the sound and layered it over our footage. 

The music did not need any manipulation as  it seemed to fit the footage very well. I also found another sound effect from the same website to add to the flashbacks. The sounds work well together. 

Editing Footage

We have edited a large chunk of our footage so far as a group, however, the following is some of the remaining footage left to add.

Cutting clips

As some of the clips had parts which needed to be cut out, there were two ways in which I did this. One way was to select the arrow icon before selecting blade tool. Next, I would blade the area before simply selecting the section which I had cut and delete it. Another way would be to simply select the clip and drag the highlighted parts at the end of the clip.

Transitions and Effects

At the beginning of the opening, we used the 'Flash' transition in order to make it clear to the audience that the next clip would be a flashback, therefore, I decided to use this a few more times in order to re-enforce to our audience of the flashbacks.

In addition to this, I decided to use effects on the close up of the priests eyes, which were similar to that of the possessed girl. To do this, I selected the highlighted clip before clicking on the right hand side tool-bar and selecting "reverse". After this, I also selected the same tool-bar and selected "re-timing". As I wanted to increase the speed, I dragged the re-timing handle to the left to create a fast motion effect.

Sound

In one of our flashback clips, there is a short scene of a close up shot of the priests feet as he circles the little girl. To heighten the suspense, I wanted to layer a non-diegetic sound of footsteps. To do this, I selected the music note icon on the left and searched for the effect of footsteps. The one which I found was slightly faster than that of our priest. Therefore, I decided to try to use the same method when increasing the speed of a clip, but in terms of slowing down the speed. Prior to this, I made sure to select the clip and drag the sound like to a mute in order to remove any diegetic sound.

Evaluation

Positives

• I was able to cut out unnecessary parts of our clips (e.g. talking and laughing)
• I think that the 'Flash' effectively allows our audience to identify our flashbacks
• The 'Cross Dissolve' transition creates a smooth transition from one clip to another

Negatives

• I was unable to put the non-diegetic sound of footsteps and the walking clip in sync
• I could have experimented with more transitions

Opening: Context

Many horror movies give information/context to the audience at the very start of the opening (after production company titles etc.) This gives the audience more background and knowledge before the film begins, such as dates, events and sometimes characters. This would be effective as it is fairly typical of supernatural horror movies, and sets the scene for the audience whilst adding depth through background information. Here are some examples:


Paranormal Activity 4
0.09- Location, date
0.37- Date, event
1.54- Key information


The Devil Inside
0.06- Date, Location
0.07- 911 call dialogue (audio and visual)


'The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.'

This is the dialogue said by the narrator at the very start of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (slasher.) As you can see it hints at what the movie will entail (tragedy which befell a group of five youths,) and introduces some of the characters (e.g Sally and Franklin.) The 'facts' told at the start also allows the film to appear more realistic, making it more distressing for the audience.

Editing

Editing

 Alongside editing with the group we have also decided to do individual editing to make sure we all participate equally.  On top of the already existing editing I started with getting rid of any background sound on the clips.  I did this by going onto audio enhancement, sound board, then reduce background noise to 100%.

 I then wanted to add in some diegetic sound to increase the realism of the piece.  For the forest section I went through the already existing sounds on final cut to find a foot step sound.  After testing out all the footstep sounds next to the clip I decided on Footsteps bare running.  I then adjusted the volume of the running on the sound board to make sure they were not too loud and would drown out any other sounds.

 I also found Footsteps Mud run which was very appropriate for parts of the clips so I layered it under the heavy breathing of the victim.  The combination of sounds makes the clip seem very realistic and fits well in conjunction with the running clips.

 To make this ending clip as effective as possible I wanted to find a non-diegetic sound which would make the audience jump.  After testing a lot of the sounds I decided on a thunder noise as it sounded very ominous and dramatic, in parallel to the scene and genre.

 I also wanted to increase the brightness of some of the clips to make sure the audience can see the possession scene properly.  To do this I went onto the colour board then exposure.  I only increased the brightness by a little bit to make sure it was still shadowy and dark.

To make the possession seem more supernatural and creepy I decided to make the clip run backwards to make the movements more unnatural and disjointed.  This looked very effective so I used the blade tool to break up the different camera angles then rearranged them so the possession was even more disjointed.

Typography Practice

The name of our film is more than likely to be 'The Ritual' as this is what the majority of people voted for within the survey, and also what we feel would be the most appropriate (linking well to the supernatural horror genre.)

After lots of research from already existing film titles within our genre we were able to pick out the common conventions of typography within the horror genre. The main ones are:

• Capital letters 
• Using a traditional 'gothic' font (sharp, pointed letters)
• Colour schemes such as red, white, black, and grey
• Including 'The' in the title
• Manipulating the title slightly (only particular letters)

Here are some possibilities:

Editing Task: Reoccurring Clip

The point of this was to practice having a clip reoccurring throughout the scene. I purposely left out sound throughout the rest of the scene so more attention could be paid to the reoccurring clip and its sound (for practice purposes only.) This was I can asses whether or not it is effective and whether we can use it in the final sequence.

Firstly I uploaded all the clips needed to iMovie. I then selected the clip that I wanted to reoccur throughout, and split it into several parts.

I split the other clips within the sequence to allow the reoccurring clip to be placed there.

 I was then able to place the parts of the clip within the other clips in the sequence as shown below.

The parts where the girl was to look possessed with unrealistic body movements I sped up (X2.) This would make the movements look un-natural and it would therefore be disturbing to the audience, linking to the supernatural horror genre.

  I put a few of the other clips in slow motion as a way of distorting reality, again making the audience feel distressed and linking to the supernatural horror genre.

I added a heavy breathing sound that I downloaded to the reoccurring parts. This makes the girl sound distressed and anxious, allowing the audience to realise she is clearly frightened which helps to provoke sympathy as she is only a child. The breathing sound I downloaded was quite deep, so I took the pitch up one to make it sound lighter and more child-like to be more realistic.

I trimmed the sound so that it was only heard during the reoccurring clips and not throughout the whole sequence.

This is the final clip:



What worked well:

• The reoccurring clip was effective, giving a distortion of reality and making it quite distressing

What could be improved:

• The reoccurring clips could be longer so that the audience get a clearer idea of what is happening within them.
• The breathing could still sound more realistic and could be layered to be more effective for example over a 'heartbeat' sound.